Veteran has eye-opening experience at fair

•Marie from Fort Gratiot: “We went to the 4-H Fair on Wednesday, my husband Bob wore his Vietnam veteran hat, and older and middle age adults at different times stopped him and said, “Thank you for your service.” Later in the evening, a group of four teenagers walked near us. The boy stopped, left his group, faced Bob, shook his hand and said, “Thank you, sir, for your service,” and then rejoined his friends. Talk about parents raising their children beautifully.”

•Jim from St. Clair: “What genius at the road commission thought spending $328,000 to outfit three military surplus trucks was a good idea? They also spent $683,000 to buy three new tandem trucks from Traverse City. Couldn’t they find those closer?”

I think you answered your own question. Getting three plow trucks by spending only $328,000 instead of $683,000 is genius. Both projects were award by bid. Grand Traverse Diesel offered the best price on the new plow trucks and Truck & Trailer Specialties of Howell had the lowest bid for outfitting the three other trucks.

•No Name: “About DTE and requesting credit for outages: On Nov. 17, 2013, we were out of power for seven days — 168 hours — from a storm. I requested to be reimbursed like you said here in the paper. I was detailed — who I talked to, how long it would be for power, who said what — sent all that in and explained we were out and they sent me a letter, ‘We recognize that the inconvenience and possible costs to our customers may be a burden, however unless we caused damage through our direct negligence, we must respectfully deny your request to be reimbursed.’ So after all the gasoline we paid for our generator, everything without power, inconvenience, waiting, they denied us. So that there is not true to them reimbursing you.”

As I said, state law in effect since 2004 would have required DTE to give you a $25 credit on your bill. There is no requirement that it buy gas for your generator — although your homeowners insurance might cover that.

•Gloria Spencer: “I just want to thank Brian for asking the question about why grandparents can’t be held responsible for the cruelty to children. I think this is a law that should be changed as soon as possible. I had wondered this so many times.”

•Rob from Yale: “Has anyone ever noticed before that the concrete address marker for the sheriff’s department on Michigan Avenue, looks like a huge burial vault? It is kind of ominous looking.”

•Jane from Marine City: “How ironic. Marine City now has the immortal Titanic whereas Algonac has a $550,000 savings. Doug Alexander, you are the man. Kudos to you. Don’t we wish we were in Algonac.”

•Neighbor in Fort Gratiot: “I’d like to thank the crew that just finished filling in the ditches on Parker Road. It looks wonderful, and they did an amazing job. Thank you everybody.”